Chapter 92: The Battle of Chongqing

Sichuan is now known as the land of Bashu. Ba and Shu are two small countries established in this region in ancient China. These two small countries have made contributions to the development of Bashu. It was the first time they developed this rich land.

We all know that it was Qin Shihuang who unified China and created the unified pattern of China. However, Qin was not the most powerful among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period. The most powerful in the early stage was Wei. The one with the largest territory, the largest population and the richest resources was Chu. In today's words, not to mention Chu was a "superpower", so it was once optimistic and believed that it was the country with the most hope of unifying China. What people unexpectedly expected was that the Qin State, which was not paid attention to and was located in the western frontier.

The reason why Qin State was able to become stronger and finally unify China was due to the success of Shang Yang's reforms. The strategic policy adopted by Shang Yang after the reforms was to defend eastward, develop westward, and annex the ethnic minorities in the west. After hard work, Qin State was very successful. The territory expanded and the population increased, and Qin State became stronger.

During the reign of King Huiwen of Qin, Zhang Yi, who was full of deceitful and wise, was the prime minister. Zhang Yi offered a plan to demand the capture of Bashu. King Huiwen of Qin happily adopted this plan, incorporated Bashu into the territory, and obtained the rich Bashu land. Qin State became stronger. He then shifted the strategic focus eastward. Qin soldiers came out to compete with the six Shandong countries and finally unified China.

In the previous article, I also mentioned that the land of Bashu and Guanzhong are the two cornerstones of the Central Qin State's unification of China, which shows the importance of the land of Bashu. It was precisely because of the importance of Bashu that Li Jun decided to increase troops to Bashu, centered on the land of Bashu, and launched a large-scale annihilation battle in the southwest area, completely eliminated the Mongolian army entrenched in the southwest area, stabilized the land of Bashu, and then stabilized the provinces in the southwest, and created a better strategic situation for the Southern Song Dynasty.

Chongqing is one of the most important cities in the southwestern provinces. It is built on the edge of the Yangtze River. It is a famous water and land transportation city and an exit for eastward transportation in the southwestern provinces. We are all familiar with Li Bai's famous line "The road to Shu is more difficult than climbing to the blue sky." The reason why it is so difficult is because the land of Bashu lacks an exit. Bashu is a famous basin with mountains blocking the north, south and west. It is really difficult to find an exit. Only when the Yangtze River goes eastward has an important channel, which is the road to search for the Three Gorges and go straight out of Hubei.

Since the time of Mengge, the Mongols have been using troops to Chongqing, trying to control Chongqing and then float down the river to capture Kuimen, an extremely important strategic throat, and joined with the Mongolian soldiers in Yingzhou. Three large armies went south and headed straight to Lin'an. Due to the rise of Sichuan military and civilians' resistance, the Mongolian army fought hard in this land of Bashu for several years without results. In the end, Mengge died in the Diaoyu City, which made the great detour strategy not continue in the end.

Under the command of Li Jun, the Southern Song army won two consecutive victories in Jiangnan and annihilated millions of Mongolian troops. The shocking force caused to Mongolia is naturally beyond description. In Mongolia's history, although there are many precedents in defeat, even Genghis Khan also suffered a very miserable defeat in his early years, such a large-scale defeat was the first time in history. Kublai Khan was furious and decided to recruit a large army again to prepare for a larger war against the Southern Song Dynasty.

In order to carry out the upcoming war, control the land of Sichuan, and use the war resources here is naturally one of his goals. In addition, the Mongolian army that has been trapped here for many years can be transferred away and participated in the military operations to attack Jiangnan. Under the deployment of Li Jun, the Southern Song Dynasty was also actively preparing for the upcoming storm. Sichuan, a rich place, is naturally a stable key area for Li Jun, to strengthen the strength of the Southern Song Dynasty.

It is precisely based on these considerations that Kublai Khan had issued an order to give Xichuan a commander Shu Suhuli to stabilize the land of Dongchuan at the fastest speed. Sichuan is divided into Dongchuan and Xichuan. Dongchuan is naturally the eastern region of Sichuan, and Xichuan is the western region of Sichuan. When Mengge implemented the great detour strategy, Kublai Khan successfully destroyed Dali. In order to capture Sichuan, Mongolia sent troops from Shaanxi, one from Yunnan, and one from Guangxi. Mengge was preparing to take down Sichuan in one fell swoop, then go down the Yangtze River and head straight to Lin'an.

Although the Southern Song Dynasty was unable to fight back and the court was corrupt, it was not that there were no capable ministers. Some people still proposed the strategy of "guarding the upper reaches to consolidate the lower reaches", which strengthened Sichuan's military defense capabilities and gave Wen Tianxiang a sentence "Since ancient times, no one will die, keep his loyalty to shine in history." Lu Wende, who was angry, led tens of thousands of warships to help, but defeated the Mongols.

As the Sichuan military and civilians rose up to fight against each other, the Mongols only occupied the land of Xichuan and continued to attack Dongchuan but could not defeat it. However, due to the corruption of the Southern Song Dynasty court and the increasing military pressure from the Jiangnan area, they did not give Sichuan a decent support. Sichuan was able to maintain it entirely due to the efforts of loyal ministers and famous generals such as Zhang Jue and the patriotic enthusiasm of Sichuan military and civilians.

Shusuhuli was an excellent military strategist. During the Diaoyushan War, he offered Mengge the plan to give up his attack on Diaoyu City and sent a small number of troops to siege. The rest of the troops advanced eastward along the Yangtze River as soon as possible. However, Mengge did not adopt his suggestion, but instead attacked Diaoyu City. In the end, Mengge died in a trap.

After receiving Kublai Khan's order, Shusuhuli targeted Chongqing with his keen insight. Needless to say, he could control Chongqing, and then he could conquer Kuimen along the river and seize Kuimen, an extremely important strategic throat. Then the Southern Song Dynasty set out from Jiangnan and went up the river to the reinforcements and supplies, and no one could enter Sichuan. In other words, the Sichuan army that lost Kuimen would fight alone and would become a bird in a cage. He could have been struggling to defeat the Song army in Sichuan.

Shusuhuli concentrated 50,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on Chongqing. After several months, Chongqing was no longer supported, and it was a matter of time before it fell. Sichuan's military strength itself was very insufficient. In order to take the overall situation into consideration and protect Jiangnan, a fundamental important place, Zhang Jue dispatched another 50,000 troops to take a detour to Jiangnan, making Sichuan's troops even more empty. The situation that could barely support suddenly became unsupported. The cities of Hechuan, Luzhou, Wanxian and Fuling, which were originally controlled by the Song army, fell one after another.

Fortunately, Zhang Jue's deputy Zhao An had already expected this result and gathered the Song army from these places to Chongqing in advance, in order to defend Chongqing, an extremely important city as much as possible, and to win time for Zhang Jue to return to Sichuan. If Zhao An had not handled it properly, Chongqing might have fallen long ago with the Southern Song Dynasty's troops in Sichuan.

The current situation in Chongqing is already very bad. According to Zhao An's estimate, he will last for half a month at most. If there are less reinforcements within half a month, Chongqing will inevitably fall. It is not that Zhao An is pessimistic, but the situation has reached this point, and even if he has the ability to penetrate the sky and the earth, he cannot reverse it.

Not to mention the lack of food, it is enough to defeat him. He once saw a very shocking example. He went out to patrol the city the night before yesterday and saw an old man falling to the ground. A group of hungry people surrounded him and cut his meat and ate it. In fact, the old man was just starving and did not die. The hungry people mistakenly thought he was dead, so they cut his meat and ate it. Because the old man screamed in pain, but the hungry people still care about it and were only caring about cutting his meat. Zhao An hurriedly sent soldiers to drive the hungry people away. The old man was left with only a pile of bones. He could no longer hold it back and shed tears. (Note: When Mongolia attacked Luzhou, the people in Luzhou had cut people to death to eat because there was no food.)

The enemy's pain is his own blessing. After receiving the news, Shu Suhuli was very happy and told his subordinates: "Work harder, the eagle on the grassland will catch the hungry chicken." He ordered his subordinates to attack day and night. For the current situation, Shu Suhuli will definitely win, that is, he will not attack, and he can take over the city within a month. However, for Shu Suhuli, it is more reassuring to take over the early than to take down later, because the intelligence shows that the reinforcements of the Southern Song Dynasty have already set off. If it is too late, variables will appear as soon as the reinforcements of the Southern Song Dynasty arrive. It is a question whether he can still win.

Although the Mongolian army fought hard in Sichuan for many years, although they did not take over the land of Dongchuan, the Mongolian army has always had the upper hand and has always looked down on the Song army. Victory is about to be obtained. For the Mongolian army, the soldiers are all excited. Mo Ming exerted one point of combat power to ten, ten point of combat power to 10, and siege the city as if life-despite.

Under the command of Zhao An, the Song army fought back, and the Mongolian army paid a heavy price but did not take Chongqing.

Looking at the mountains of corpses piled up under the city, Zhao An looked at the night sky in the east tiredly and kept saying in his heart: "Sir, why haven't you come yet? If you don't come again, Chongqing will fall into the hands of the Tartars. We will be farewell forever."

Zhao An, in despair, had no idea that the outcome of the battle had reversed, and the balance of the war had tilted towards him, because reinforcements had arrived.

On a deserted beach ten miles away from Chongqing City, the Southern Song Navy led by Zheng Jinghe was mooring on the shore. The Song army on the boat was jumping off the boat, and a sound of falling into the water came from the sound. Because the situation in Chongqing was critical, Li Jun didn't care about anything else, so he had to order Zhang Jue and the others to set off quickly. There was no small ship to be used for landing, so the soldiers had to work hard to swim by themselves.

Zhang Jue came to the shore with the river water, shook his wet clothes, and shouted: "Get together now! Get ready to set off!"

In order to rush to Chongqing, Liu Hezi and Zhang Jue selected a group of elite soldiers to enter Sichuan in advance. This group of troops was well-trained and highly adaptable. Zhang Jue's order was delivered at once, and it was assembled in less than a cup of tea.

Liu Hezi and Zhang Jue stretched out their right hand to each other and held it hard, without saying anything. All the words were in this grip. They each led a team of people to set off, and soon disappeared into the night. The originally crowded Jiangan suddenly returned to peace. The next morning, some people found countless messy footprints here, but they couldn't figure out why Qingming was the reason. They thought that there was a god. If Zhang Jue hadn't come forward to present the Qing Dynasty later, he would have to build a temple to worship it.

Under the command of Zheng Jinghe, the naval fleet started anchoring and sailed upstream, and a war was coming.

A ray of morning glow appeared from the sky, and Zhao An, whose eyes were covered in blood, looked at the first ray of light and sighed: "It's another day." For him, this day was too difficult, it was really a matter of time to live like the year. Perhaps, it was even more difficult than living like the year.

Sniffing the bloody air, Zhao An was still refreshed and warned himself in his heart to stick to it no matter what: people are in the city!

Just when Zhao An felt the morning was beautiful, a fireball appeared in the sky, dragging its long tail, drawing beautiful curves, and weaving a huge web like a spider web to fly towards the Mongolian position. As soon as the big net fell on the Mongolian position, fireballs flashed, followed by a shocking explosion. The Mongolian position was in chaos, with broken corpses everywhere, dust and sand everywhere, smoke everywhere, and Mongolian troops jumping around everywhere.

Zhao An fought with the Mongolians in Sichuan for many years. Knowing that although the Mongolian army aroused his anger, he had to admit that the Mongolian army was indeed a very excellent army with strict discipline. Even if it was a failure, he would maintain formation and retreat in an orderly manner. It was the first time he had encountered such chaos like today. It was really hard to believe that this was true. He opened his eyes wide and looked at the chaotic battlefield in surprise, but he even forgot to rush out.

Not to mention that Zhao An could hardly believe that this is true, even the famous general Shusuhuli could hardly believe that this is true. Shusuhuli was a general with extraordinary military talents. His suggestion was not adopted by Mengge. Mengge was finally killed in Diaoyu City. After Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he appreciated his talents very much and appointed him as the governor of Xichuan. Shusuhuli believed that the army he brought out could be indomitable and fought tenaciously in the face of failure, and there would be no chaos in any situation. In fact, in previous battles, his army was indeed like this, which verified his belief.

However, this belief was broken today. The situation today is not the question of whether the Mongolian army is in chaos, but is very chaotic and so chaotic that it is hard to believe. In Shu Suhuli's memory, he has never seen such a chaotic scene as today in his life.

It is no wonder, who said that the Mongolian army was attacked by artillery fire from Zheng Jinghe's fleet? For the Mongolian army entrenched in Sichuan, they had not experienced the baptism of artillery fire, and they had no idea what artillery fire was. They only knew the serious consequences of artillery fire, which was extremely traumatic. If they were hit by an intact corpse, they would either be broken or broken, and even their internal organs might be broken. How could the Mongolian army, which is known for its cruelty, imagine such a thing, and they could not be confused.

Boyan's army and Guo Kan's army knew what artillery fire were and some ways to deal with it. These two armies no longer existed. Now, there was no Mongolian army that lay down when the artillery fire came. If there were any, it might be Guo Kan himself and his personal soldiers.

Just when Zhao An and Shu Suhu were surprised, another firelight appeared in the sky, and Zheng Jinghe's second round of artillery attacks had begun. In order to strengthen Sichuan's troops, Zheng Jinghe transferred nine of the twelve invincible warships. The nine invincible warships alone had 1,800 artillery guns, plus the artillery of other gunships, and the total number of artillery guns thrown here is no less than 4,000. Not to mention that such a large number of artillery guns were a considerable number in ancient times, even in modern warfare. Although the power was not as good as that of today, it was enough to plow the Mongolian position several times.

In order not to have gaps, Zheng Jinghe divided the artillery into four batches, with one thousand guns in each batch being fired volleys. Under his command, four thousand guns attacked in turn, and the killing caused was incalculable. After the battle, people were surprised to find countless craters appeared on the Mongolian positions, and the number of craters was even more than the total number of Mongolian troops.

Shusuhuli threw 50,000 troops in Chongqing, and there were about 80,000 craters, which means that every two Mongolian soldiers would be hit by three shells. You can imagine how fierce the fire was at that time. Such fierce artillery fire would inevitably have a shocking reversal. By the time the artillery fire stopped, more than half of the Mongolian army had been killed or injured. The Mongolian army, which had a great hope of winning the battle, collapsed suddenly. They could no longer take any other actions except fleeing everywhere.

The reason why Zheng Jinghe bombed so violently was the result of discussion between him and Liu Hezi and Zhang Jue. The three of them unanimously decided not only to win the first battle, but also to make the Mongolians remember what terror is, that is, to carry out a psychological attack war against the Mongolian army, completely defeat them and destroy their will to resist, so that such a fierce bombing was carried out.

Zhao An finally woke up from the shock, pulled out his knife suddenly, raised it high on his head, and shouted: "Soldiers: Our reinforcements have arrived! The emperor has sent us reinforcements! Kill!" He rushed into the head first. Unfortunately, he was too tired and almost hit the city wall. Fortunately, the happy event could dispel fatigue, but he was shocked and did not really hit the city wall. He rushed out of the city like a wind.

The excited Song Jun followed him closely and rushed out like a craze.

Just as Zhao An came out of the city, the Song army led by Liu Hezi and Zhang Jue came out from both directions. That's not all, Zheng Jinghe's Marines also came out from the shore. For a moment, four armies came out together, killing inside and outside.

The Song army suddenly appeared like a divine weapon descending from the sky, causing the situation to reverse instantly. Not to mention the situation, the situation is difficult to deal with, even if Genghis Khan is in the underground, there is no way to do it. The ending needs to be said: there will be no doubt that it will be defeated!

"Sir!" Zhao An shouted in infinite surprise, in return for Zhang Jue's enthusiastic hug. Zhang Jue hugged Zhao An, who was exhausted and so excited that he could not express anything. He could not say anything. He shed tears in his eyes and beat Zhao An's back hard. Zhao An also beat Zhang Jue's back hard and started crying.
Chapter completed!